Ray, Sarah Jaquette, 1976-
2010-05-08T01:26:33Z
2010-05-08T01:26:33Z
2009-09
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/10352
xi, 233 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
This dissertation argues that a fundamental paradox underlies U.S. environmentalism: even as it functions as a critique of dominant social and economic practices, environmentalism simultaneously reinforces many social hierarchies, especially with regard to race, immigration, and disability, despite its claims to recognize the interdependence of human and ecological well-being. This project addresses the related questions: In what ways does environmentalism--as a code of behavioral imperatives and as a set of rhetorical strategies--ironically play a role in the exploitation of land and communities? Along what lines--class, race, ability, gender, nationality, age, and even "sense of place"--do these environmental codes and discourses delineate good and bad environmental behavior?
I contend that environmentalism emerged in part to help legitimize U.S. imperial ambitions and support racialized and patriarchal conceptions of national identity. Concern about "the environment" made anxieties about communities of color more palatable than overt racism. Furthermore, "environmentalism's hidden attachments" to whiteness and Manifest Destiny historically aligned the movement with other repressive ideologies, such as eugenics and strict anti-immigration. These "hidden attachments" exist today, yet few have analyzed their contemporary implications, a gap this project fills.
In three chapters, I detail nineteenth-century environmentalism's influence on contemporary environmental thought. Each of these three illustrative chapters investigates a distinct category of environmentalism's "ecological others": Native Americans, people with disabilities, and undocumented immigrants. I argue that environmentalism defines these groups as "ecological others" because they are viewed as threats to nature and to the American national body politic. The first illustrative chapter analyzes Native American land claims in Leslie Marmon Silko's 1991 novel, Almanac of the Dead . The second illustrative chapter examines the importance of the fit body in environmental literature and U.S. adventure culture. In the third illustrative chapter, I integrate literary analysis with geographical theories and methods to investigate national security, wilderness protection, and undocumented immigration in the borderland. In a concluding fourth chapter, I analyze works of members of the excluded groups discussed in the first three chapters to show how they transform mainstream environmentalism to bridge social justice and ecological concerns.
This dissertation contains previously published material.
Committee in charge: Shari Huhndorf, Chairperson, English;
Louise Westling, Member, English;
David Vazquez, Member, English;
Juanita Sundberg, Member, Not from U of 0
Susan Hardwick, Outside Member, Geography
en_US
University of Oregon
University of Oregon theses, Environmental Studies Program, Ph. D., 2009;
Environmental justice
Immigration
Ecocriticism
Ecological other
Disability studies
Cultural studies
Native Americans
Silko, Leslie, 1948-
American studies
Geography
American literature
Indians of North America
The ecological other: Indians, invalids, and immigrants in U.S. environmental thought and literature
Thesis

Joshi, Shangrila, 1981-
2012-03-20T18:58:04Z
2012-03-20T18:58:04Z
2011-09
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12030
xvi, 203 p. : ill. (some col.)
Global climate negotiations have been at a standstill for over a decade now over the issue of distributing the responsibility of mitigating climate change among countries. During the past few years, countries such as India and China - the so-called emerging economies that were under no obligation to mitigate under the Kyoto Protocol - have increasingly come under pressure to accept limits comparable to those for industrialized countries. These countries, in turn, have strongly resisted these pressures.
My dissertation examines India's participation in these ongoing climate negotiations. Based on qualitative interviews with relevant Indian officials, textual analysis and participant observation, I tell the story of why and how this so-called emerging economy has been resisting a cap on its emissions despite being one of the most vulnerable countries to the consequences of climate change. I draw upon the literatures of environmental justice, international relations, postcolonialism and political ecology to develop my dissertation and adopt a self-reflexive approach in my analysis.
The need for global cooperation to address global environmental issues has arguably provided greater bargaining power to countries formerly marginalized in the global political economy. Following the dynamics of North-South environmental politics, India's climate politics consists of utilizing this power to increase its access to global resources as well as to hold hegemonic industrialized countries accountable for their historical and continuing exploitation of the environmental commons.
A key aspect of India's climate politics consists of self-identification as a developing country. Developed countries with higher cumulative and per capita emissions are seen to have the primary responsibility to mitigate climate change and to provide financial and technological support to developing countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Developing countries are seen to have a right to pursue development defined as economic growth. The climate crisis is thus seen by my respondents as an opportunity to address the unequal status quo between developed and developing countries. I suggest that this crisis also creates opportunities to redefine development beyond a narrow focus on economic growth. This may be enabled if the demand for justice in an international context is extended to the domestic sphere.
Committee in charge: Shaul Cohen, Chairperson;
Alec Murphy, Member;
Ted Toadvine, Member;
Peter Walker, Member;
Anita Weiss, Outside Member
en_US
University of Oregon
University of Oregon theses, Environmental Studies Program, Ph. D., 2011;
rights_reserved
International relations
Environmental studies
Asian studies
Geography
Health and environmental sciences
Social sciences
Climate politics
Environmental justice
India
North-South
Political ecology
Postcolonialism
Climate change
Climatic changes -- Government policy -- India
Justice, Development and India’s Climate Politics: A Postcolonial Political Ecology of the Atmospheric Commons
Postcolonial Political Ecology of the Atmospheric Commons
Thesis